How to build.....

[Exit Stage Left]

I saw the Nuclear Submarine one and most of the Jumbo Jet Engine one. A touch 'Boy's Own Comic' perhaps, but I enjoyed them, a good thing that the BBC aren't leaving this type of programme to Channel 5.
BBC iPlayer - How to Build...: A Jumbo Jet Engine

[pcolbeck]

They should also release it as a magazine series with a piece on the front of each one. First issue £!.99 subsequent issues £4.99.

[Rig of Jarkness]

Just watched the jet engine one - superb !  OK, I have a special interest as I used to work for Royce's, as did many of my  then (Derby Mercury) clubmates.  Legend has it that Royce's played a significant role in the origins of the Mercian brand.  As far as I recall, the story goes that Lew Barker, who I believe founded Mercian's, enlisted a number of workers at the factory to prepare lugs for him in their 'spare'  time.  They would then be smuggled out of the factory by means of a hole in the wall.    Given what we saw in the TV program, the days of such shenanigans are long gone !

[mrcharly-YHT]

That was fab!

[pcolbeck]

The inflating the blades bit had me stunned. Who thought of that ?

[bobb]

Very interesting. I didn't realise just how many engines RR builds. I am assuming that they are not cheap to buy and RR must account for a significant chunk of UK exports...

[Exit Stage Left]

I was interested in how one of the modules was late from a supplier in Europe, could that be Rolls Royce Deutschland, the co-venture with BMW, and the reason why Rolls Royce wanted BMW and not VW to have the car company name.
Rolls-Royce Deutschland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[mrcharly-YHT]

Two bits really got me. The inflating blades, and the blades that are cast as a single crystal.

Erm, anyone an expert on these engines?  Don't the tips of the main fan blades exceed the speed of sound?

[clarion]

We had some of the earliest single crystal turbine blades on our mantlepiece at home.  Magnificent.

There was also a jar of powdered metal.  Perfect.

[LEE]

It also taught me the difference between a turbojet and a turbofan engine.

I love stuff like this.  It could only have been improved if Fred Dibnah had been allowed to present it.

[Torslanda]

Contrastingly, the last programme was a bit of a let-down.

It promised so much but failed entirely to deliver because it couldn't involve us in the tribulations of re-certing a Chinook.

I wonder are these the aircraft we bought and paid for so long ago which have been unable to fly because they were delivered without the necessary activation software?

I wonder if they were trying a little too hard and over egging a rewire and reconfiguration job? Not a patch on the Rolls Royce prog IMHO

luv'n'stuff

J

[Exit Stage Left]

The things that annoyed me about the Rolls Royce programme were the claims that Rolls Royce built the engines for Concorde and for the Harrier, probably technically correct in volume terms, but actually developed by Bristol Siddeley, and the role ascribed to Rolls Royce at Barnoldswick in the early Whittle days when Rover were in charge. Great programme apart from that, and these historical details do tend to get glossed over.

[Chris S]

Erm, anyone an expert on these engines?  Don't the tips of the main fan blades exceed the speed of sound?

I believe Frenchie's yer man, though I think he's on holihobs.

[Mr Larrington]

these historical details do tend to get glossed over.

I just watched a Thing about the Battle of Britain from Tuesday.  How it managed to get through the whole story without mention Dowding, Park or Leigh-Mallory is something of an oddity.  The only people who did get a namecheck were Churchill, Hitler and Goering

[Exit Stage Left]

these historical details do tend to get glossed over.

I just watched a Thing about the Battle of Britain from Tuesday.  How it managed to get through the whole story without mention Dowding, Park or Leigh-Mallory is something of an oddity.  The only people who did get a namecheck were Churchill, Hitler and Goering

It's a bit like the story of the Scheider Trophy Supermarine floatplanes that were the ancestors of the Spitfire, they won twice with Napier engines and once with a Rolls Royce R engine unrelated to the Merlin, but that's not the story that gets told.

[Zoidburg]

Did they show you how to build a cut and shut Chinook from one damaged British airframe and one captured Argentinian one?

[Bledlow]

It promised so much but failed entirely to deliver because it couldn't involve us in the tribulations of re-certing a Chinook.

I wonder are these the aircraft we bought and paid for so long ago which have been unable to fly because they were delivered without the necessary activation software?

I believe so, though it wasn't activation software.

They were delivered as specified. The MoD had tried to be clever & save some money by specifying a unique analogue/digital hybrid cockpit, but was very much penny wise & pound foolish.

the contract did not specify that software documentation and code for avionics systems should be analysed in accordance with United Kingdom Defence standards in order to demonstrate software integrity. This was because it was (erroneously) assumed that since the systems and displays in the HC.Mk 3 cockpit were based upon those fitted to the Royal Netherlands Air Force's advanced CH-47D Chinooks, there could be a ‘read-across’ on the basis of similarity with the Dutch avionics, allowing an adequate safety case to be constructed. Unfortunately, the HC.Mk 3 hybrid cockpit had a unique configuration and this assumption proved unfounded. As a result it has not been possible to demonstrate that the helicopter's flight instruments meet the required United Kingdom Defence standards.

If the slightly more expensive all digital Dutch cockpit systems had been fitted, about £150 million would have been saved.